Have a checkbox which auto-populates the motion box with the top 5 (or whatever) motions voted for in the last 1000 blocks.

This can happen independently from any other measures taken to aid the simplicity of voting. A button in the ‘Motion Vote…’ category of the client would automatically fill up to 5 empty slots (4 if you already entered a motion manually and so on) with any motions that were voted on in the last 1000 blocks (again, checking against any manually set motions to avoid duplication).

Benefits:

A voter doesn’t have to keep up on the forum or the block chain explorer, just hits the button in the client and goes and looks those hashes up in the forum.

A voter doesn’t have to copy and paste hashes, but can instead just autofill and delete the ones they don’t like, identifying the hashes by eye.

Detriments:

Uninformed voters may hit the button coincidentally at a time when people are voting on a controversial motion.

Programmer time and $$

Is there a way to reduce the chance of uninformed voters if we implement this? Is there a better method of implementation? Would it add confusion to the UI or simplify the process?

We could use a basic threshold requirement before populating, such as 5% support in the last 1000 blocks. If we combined this with ignoring the first group of blocks after seeing a motion for the first time, this could become a pretty stringent requirement.